"The Government needs to be a little more nimble in this area.
Five years ago, we needed people in the IT industry and we were
slow to open the tap. Now we don't need them and we are too slow in
closing it," he said.

Mandla's comments follow media debate about skills shortage in
the IT industry.

He said the Government needed a 10- to 15-year vision for the
industry.

"We need to seriously ask the question, 'Is this industry
important to Australia?' and decide what we want," he said. "Look
at India and China - they decided on a direction 15 years ago and
they are soaring. We are last among the OECD nations. Both India
and China have created the foundation which will bring them rewards
for at least the next few generations."

He said the society wanted the Government to help create a
"Technology Australia" brand to market the industry. "We need the
right environment so that multinationals can invest in our IT
industry. We need sales and marketing. We need research grants," he
said.

"Right now, no Australian leader who can help in the marketing
of our IT industry will become a member of a board and assume such
a role. Were that to happen, the tax office would immediately start
scrutinising the individual's affairs to see what additional tax
could be extracted from the person concerned," Mandla said.

He pointed to the marketing success of bodies like Tourism
Australia and Austrade.

Mandla was nonchalant about the fact that IT Minister Helen
Coonan had excluded the society from the proposed Board of IT, a
group that will advise the Government on policy priorities.

"As I understand it, the role of that body will be mainly to
advise on purchasing policy," he said.

Mandla said the ACS would release its migration policy either
next week or in the first week of May.

He rejected claims that his recruitment industry interests - he
is managing director of executive search company Alt-U - might
present a conflict of interest.

"I run an executive search and management consultancy. It has
nothing to do with technical workers," he said.

The ACS has still not released a study it commissioned last year
from Sydney labour market consultant Bob Kinnaird, which found that
migrant IT workers were depriving Australians of jobs.

However, a copy was passed to the then communications minister
Daryl Williams and distributed to several government
departments.

Mandla dismissed speculation about why the ACS had not released
this study. "I took a look at the study and realised that we needed
to split the topics. We needed a more detailed study which we
commissioned and have obtained," he said.

He did not say whether the updated study would be released with
the society's migration policy.